'DEAR JERRY JUNIOR: I hope you don't mind being called "Jerry Junior," but "Mr. Hilliard" sounds so absurdly formal, when I have known your sister so long and so well. We are spending the summer here in Valedolmo, and Mrs. Eustace and Nannie have promised to stop with us for a few days, provided you can be persuaded to pause in your mad rush through Europe. Now please take pity on us--guests are such unusual luxuries, and as for _men_! Besides a passing tourist or so, we have had nothing but Italian officers. You can climb mountains with my father--Nan says you are a climber--and we can supply mountains enough to keep you occupied for a month. 'My father would write himself, only that he is climbing this moment. 'Yours most cordially, 'CONSTANCE WILDER.' 'P.S.--I forgot to mention that we are acquainted already, you and I. We met six years ago, and you insulted me--under your own roof. You called me a _kid_. I shall accept nothing but a personal apology.' Having read it critically, she sealed and addressed it with malicious delight; it was calculated to arouse just about the emotions she would like to have Tony entertain. She gave the note to Giuseppe with instructions to place it in Gustavo's hands, and then settled herself gaily to await results. Giuseppe was barely out of sight when the two Alpine climbers appeared at the gate. Constance had been wondering how she could inform Tony that his aunt and sister had arrived, without unbending from the dignified silence of the past three days. The obvious method was to announce it to her father in Tony's presence, but her father slipped into the house by the back way without affording her an opportunity. It was Tony himself who solved the difficulty. Of his own accord he crossed the terrace and approached her side. He laid a bunch of edelweiss on the balustrade. 'It's a peace offering,' he observed. She looked at him a moment without speaking. There was a new expression in her eyes that puzzled Tony, just as the expression in his eyes that morning on the water had puzzled her. She was studying him in the light of Jerry Junior. The likeness to the sophomore who six years before sang the funny songs without a smile, was so very striking, she wondered she could ever have overlooked it. 'Thank you, Tony; it is very nice of you.' She picked up the flowers and smiled--with the knowledge of the letter that was waiting for him she could afford to be forgiving. 'You discharged me, signorina; will you take me back into your service?' 'I am not going to climb any more mountains; it is too fatiguing. I think it is better for you and my father to go alone.' 'I will serve you in other ways.'